Democracy’s Faustian Bargain: Never Facing Reality until…
 

Democracy’s Faustian Bargain: Never Facing Reality until…

The fundamental weakness of democracy is that it rests upon the deep fallacy of human propensities: we pamper our self with delusion as long as possible. We never make drastic changes until the abyss is tomorrow.

Quickie from wiki: “Something that is faustian refers to a wider interpretation of the events of Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In part one of Goethe's Faust, the central character's pact with the devil allows him to have energy, life and youth unless he becomes so entranced by the passing moment that he wishes that things will never change. When Faust stumbles unthinkingly into that wish, his world and his life are forfeit to Mephistopheles.”

St. Augustine’s plea: “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.”

We use technology to paint our self onto the precipice and then rely on technology to save us from falling into the abyss.

“The religious believer assigns dignity to whatever his religion holds sacred—a set of moral laws, a way of life, or particular objects of worship. He grows angry when the dignity of what he holds sacred is violated.” Quote from “The End of History and the Last Man” by Francis Fukuyama

To what does the non believer assign dignity? If the non believer does not assign dignity to rationality, upon what foundation does s/he stand? If the non believer does depend upon rationality for dignity how is it possible that so few know anything about rationality?

Our schools and colleges are beginning to introduce our young people to the domain of knowledge called Critical Thinking. CT is taught because our educators have begun to recognize that teaching a young person what to think is not sufficient for the citizens of a democracy in an age of high technology. CT is an attempt to teach young people how to think. Like the adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish, a youngster who knows how to think is prepared for a lifetime rather than for a day.

What about today’s adult? Today’s adult was educated in a time when schools and colleges never gave universal instruction in the art and science of thinking—rationality.

If today’s adult wishes to learn CT s/he must learn it on ‘their nickel’. I think a good read to begin with is this one:

http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm

My soul is not for sale.

I am one of "today's adults" and between undergrad and grad school, I spent a minimum of 36 credit hours in critical thinking studies. I continue those studies to this day.

Your remarks lack critical elements; specifically, citations and foundation. Three basic citation keys, pertinent?, relevant?, timely?

I am glad to hear that some schools and colleges are teaching CT. It appears to be uncommon however.

Critical Thinking is a required course at my college.

A lot of what you say rings true - depending on how you interpret it. But I think it's important to draw a very clear line between learning to think and learning WHAT to think. Plant the seed firmly, and shower it with nutrients and love. But let it grow to fruition on it's own.

Oh, and BTW, I don't think a true spiritual believer gets angry when their Object of worship is defamed. The true believer simply feels sad for the one doing the defaming.

Wow man. This is like, really really heavy stuff man!

Sorry. I'm being goofy this morning. We're doing all our L-7 check-outs today (launch is next Friday). Let's hope our trajectory calculations for our little bottle rocket are correct...

Just the tip of the iceberg nipping on this subject, but "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a good read. By Pirsig.

Tom